May 21, 1844

A famous painting by Henri Rousseau (May 21, 1844 to September 2, 1910):

There is a similarity between the Rousseau above, which is dated to 1897 and Hieronymous Bosch (detail) below, painted 400 years before Rousseau, that has probably been noticed before. The detail is part of Bosch's "Garden of Earthly Delights." Rousseau painted lots of lions, For Bosch lions were half-mythical creatures. So is it not interesting that Bosch's cats are more, if not realistic, more cat-like? My point is that Rousseau's cats show a subjectivity that is characteristic of modern thinking. My evidence for this is the critic who described the lion above as "musing." Actually the lions in both pictures are sniffing. Rousseau avoided this aspect of reality. I am thinking Bosch did not.